LeBron James was absolutely sensational in Game 2, recording 43 points, 14 assists, and eight rebounds. He had seven fadeaway jumpers in the second half, which were just demoralizing to Toronto. He looked as good as ever as he ripped the hearts out of the city.
He also got a ton of help from Kevin Love, who had 31 points and 11 rebounds. It was nice to see Love start to get back to his All-Star form. He really had a horrible series against the Pacers and seemed to really struggle with the physicality of that Indiana team. Tonight, he feasted down low, many times with Toronto having CJ Miles guard him, a strategy that did not work.
This feels bad for Toronto. It’s hard to imagine this series turning around for them. A 2-0 deficit is hard enough to overcome. But a 2-0 deficit against LeBron James?
It happened. The Raptors are now down 0-2 to the Cavs and now are heading to Cleveland for the next two. LeBron James finished with 43 points, 14 assists, and 8 rebounds.
The Cleveland Cavaliers stole Game 1 from the Toronto Raptors in Canada on Tuesday night, 113-112, in an overtime that featured a ton of misses around the rim from the No. 1 seed. In fact, they missed five shots in the final seven seconds of the game that could’ve meant the win.
The Raptors fell into their “choker” narrative, leading for 47 minutes and 17 seconds of the 48 minutes of regulation. Their stars were solid, with DeMar DeRozan scoring 22 points on 20 shots with seven rebounds and five assists. Kyle Lowry had 18 points and 10 assists, but the rest of the Raptors offense grew stale as time elapsed. Jonas Valanciunas missed a number of easy ones, finishing 7-of-19 from the floor, and just like that Toronto conceded home-court advantage.
LeBron James didn’t even play particularly well for his ridiculous standards. He triple-doubled with 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds, but shot just 12-of-30 from the field. He only made 1-of-6 free throws too, and needed every bit of J.R. Smith’s and Kyle Korver’s combined 10-of-18 three-point shooting.
Aside from the on-court drama, there was some off it too. Cavaliers bench big Kendrick Perkins got into a verbal altercation with rapper and basketball superfan Drake.
Will that continue during Game 2?